Welcome to the Gorilla Highlands archives. For fresh stories don't miss the Gorilla Highlands Experts Blog.

Five years ago two volunteers began to work on the Gorilla Highlands idea. It would grow into something quite unexpected…

At the very start our ambitions were humble. We wanted to put together a booklet and a website to promote a spectacular part of Africa. That led to an interactive book about southwestern Uganda that won a World Summit Award in 2013.

The social enterprise that initiated Gorilla Highlands, Edirisa, ran hiking and canoeing trips on Lake Bunyonyi. It felt wrong to exclusively advertise these activities in the ebook, so we extended the routes to Kisoro Town where Nkuringo Walking Safaris operated from. That was the beginning of the Gorilla Highlands Trails system that now covers most of southwestern Uganda. There are different accommodation solutions available, however, camping with rural families is the main option, providing a source of income and pride to the local population.

The idea of Gorilla Highlands has always been about the private sector working together but in 2014-2015 we received a governmental boost. We were included in a UNDP/WTO/UTB project “Support for Development of Inclusive Markets in Tourism” that focused on pro-poor tourism. That helped us prepare a familiarisation trip for Kampala-based tour operators, a press trip for foreign correspondents, the first Gorilla Highlands Silverchef cooking competition and more.

In 2015 the name “Gorilla Highlands” first appeared on maps produced by Andrew Roberts (Uganda Maps), helping our push to brand the region and make it a destination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG7VeNFHo1c

Finally, in May 2016 we are about to launch the next version of the Gorilla Highlands Video Map and organise the second Silverchef. We are working on this website becoming a place to book all kinds of activities, and are close to adding Rwanda’s Musanze to our coverage of southwestern Uganda.

Let the next 5 years be as busy and exciting!